138 linhas
6.1 KiB
HTML
138 linhas
6.1 KiB
HTML
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<title>FSFE - Software Patents in Europe</title>
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<center><h1>Software Patents in Europe</h1>
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[<a href="/campaigns/swpat/swpat.html">Introduction</a> | Background | <a
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href="/campaigns/swpat/status.html">Status</a> | <a
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href="/campaigns/swpat/documents.html">Further Reading</a>]
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</center>
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<h2>What are patents?</h2>
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<p>The idea of patents goes back to the medieval monarchs who conferred
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rights and privileges in the form of open letters (latin "litterae
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patentes") bearing their royal seal. Such patents on procedures to make
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glass, for instance, were commonly granted on the basis that this skill
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be taught to others.</p>
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<p>Later, democratic governments took the place of monarchs, but the basic
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idea remained the same: a limited monopoly was granted for a certain
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invention or process in exchanged for making that invention or process
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public. That way others could learn from it and further develop new
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inventions and processes.</p>
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<p>The underlying principle of patents and their justification is that
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they are monopolies which are granted by society for the sake of
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benefitting society.</p>
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<h2>What are software patents?</h2>
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<p>Software itself is implemented logic. Consequently, software patents are
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monopolies granted on implemented logic. It is important to understand
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that such monopolies are not on the implementation itself, which is
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covered by Copyright, but on the underlying logic of the
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implementation.</p>
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<p>Therefore, a software patent manifests a monopoly on specific calculation
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methods, which makes mathematical laws, logical rules and business
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processes property of companies, effectively disappropriating society
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of its grown knowledge.</p>
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<p>The effects of this can be dramatic. Not only does every program
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literally embed thousands of ideas that could be subject to software
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patents: While patents in other fields normally don't reach far outside
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the field they were granted in, software patents affect all areas and
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applications of software equally.</p>
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<p>Since software itself is increasingly becoming a determining factor,
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software patents have an incredible reach and more or less cover all
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areas of economy and society.</p>
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<p>Software patents are affecting the electricity industry as much as they
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affect insurance companies. They harm IT companies like IBM and
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research institutes like Fraunhofer. They are even bad for health.</p>
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<p>For good reason did the European Patent Convention (published 1973)
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explicitly state that the field of programs for computers, i.e.
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software, is excluded from patentability.</p>
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<p>Software patents are harmful to innovation, economy and society, so they
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lack justification.</p>
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<h2>Why would anyone want them?</h2>
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<p>Software patents were seen as a convenient tool by large companies in
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the United States to defend themselves against competition:</p>
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<p class="quote">"If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of
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today's ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry
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would be at a complete stand-still today. [...] A future start-up
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with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the
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giants choose to impose. That price might be high: Established
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companies have an interest in excluding future competitors."
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<br />
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<div align="right">
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William H. Gates<br />
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Internal Microsoft Memo (1991)<br />
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[Fred Warshofsky, The Patent Wars (1994)]
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</div></p>
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<p>It should be understood that while the price of software patents is paid
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by all companies, big and small, the big ones can afford paying the
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price a little longer as they have deeper pockets. Also, they believe
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that it is worth the price to rid themselves of competition.</p>
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<p>Paying the price for the system, companies obviously want their return on
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investment, which is why the Business Software
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Alliance (BSA), a lobbying organisation for huge U.S. companies, has been pushing strongly for the adoption
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of software patents in Europe, without
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European involvement.</p>
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<p>Europe as a region is still gaining on the U.S. in terms of IT industry
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as it is free from the burden of software patents that the United
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States imposed on themselves.</p>
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<p>The small and medium software companies have made Europe a central
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player in innovation, while in the U.S., innovative software
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development is limited to a few monopolists.</p>
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<h2>The European Patent Office (EPO)</h2>
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<p>Another group that benefits from software patents are patent lawyers,
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because patent lawyers are needed to apply for a patent, to grant a
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patent and to contest a patent in court. From their perspective,
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software patents offer an area of almost unlimited patentability
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without the need for development or research.</p>
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<p> Of course, patent lawyers are also found in the
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European Patent Office (EPO), which has prepared the ground for the
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introduction of software patents by granting roughly 30,000 software
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patents -- acting clearly outside its mandate and disregarding the
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European Patent Convention from 1973. </p>
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<p>Since patent lawyers are also found in many ministries across Europe and
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not wanting to step on the toes of the EPO, several European
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politicians are now trying to legitimize these patents by declaring
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these to be "computer implemented inventions."</p>
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<p>That is why the directive in question is called the directive on
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"patentability of computer implemented inventions."</p>
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<timestamp>$Date$ $Author$</timestamp>
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